The present invention relates to external electric supplies for vehicles and more particularly to retractable electric cord holder devices configured to be mounted inside a car's engine compartment, or on other mobile equipment to facilitate heating and other purposes.
It is often desirable to have a convenient means of supplying electricity in conjunction with one's automobile, recreational vehicle, or any other type of mobile equipment. This is especially true of diesel-powered automobiles which need to be warmed up once the weather cools down. In order to warm up these engines, one end of a 120 volt extension cord is plugged into the nearest electrical outlet and the other end is plugged into the engine heater. Since it is not convenient to have an extension cord at hand, attempts have been made to configure an electric cord holder which would adapt to one's car.
Examples of these attempts include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,056,698 issued Oct. 15, 1991, to Bernie Kozakevich; and 5,255,767 issued Oct. 26, 1993, to Wade K. D. Norwood. However, these attempts are not designed specifically to facilitate an engine heater and do not provide for automatic rewinding of the extension cord once the user is through. Furthermore, these attempt to not provide an automatic means for allowing electricity to flow into the extension cord once the ambient temperature within the engine compartment decreases to a predetermined range.
Even though not directly related to supplying 120 volt or other such line voltage source of electricity to a vehicle, these references do disclose a retractable booster cables device which is mounted inside a car's engine department. An example of this is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,904,205 issued Feb. 27, 1996, to Mark D. Rice. However, Rice discloses a unique coupling system for the booster cables in conjunction with concentric conductive rings where in the entire device functions in order to safely recharge a nearby battery. Rice does not disclose or suggest a plastic spool which retractably holds a 120 volt electric cord which automatically serves to provide electricity once the ambient temperature reaches below a certain range and does not address facilitating an engine compartment heater.
Similar to the Rice patent is U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,833 issued Mar. 31, 1987, to Czubemat et al. However, Czubernat et al. discloses a manually retractable set of booster cables which is not mounted inside a car's engine department, but rather is designed to be a portable device. Other examples of references which related to the field of batteries and battery recharging include German Patent No. 24 44 807 issued Apr. 1, 1976, to Robert Bosch GmbH and French Patent Publication No. 2 633 786, relative to the inventor George Leblanc, published Jan. 5, 1990.
References which address portable cord holders include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,282,954 issued Aug. 11, 1981, to John O. Hill; 4,322,045 issued Mar. 30, 1982, to Roger J. Tellier; and 4,467,979 issued Aug. 28, 1984, to Rudolph A Koehler. However, each of these patents does not suggest a mounted cord holder in which the electric cord is automatically retracted into the holder once the user is through unplugging the electric cord from a nearby electrical outlet and do not address the needs which result from facilitation of an engine compartment heater application.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, describe the instant invention. Thus a retractable electric cord holder device solving the aforementioned problems is desired.